Hi Des -- Your post makes me feel better. Now hopefully my tale will do the same for you.
I bought my boat this spring, for use at the cottage my wife and I just bought on a smallish Nova Scotia lake. The first weekend we had it was mostly a rain-out but we did get on the water a bit to start exploring our new lake.
The second weekend I took out some friends first thing Saturday. Cruising down the middle of the lake at half throttle, at probably the lake's widest point, I was feeling pretty safe. That's when we were jolted by contact with the bottom. It was an abrupt bump followed by the engine stalling, although luckily no one was thrown around. Looking behind me as the boat slowed I could see my wake cresting around the submerged top of a big rock, and a trail of gelcote crumbs in the water leading directly to me. After removing all the rocks I could from inside the jet the boat started up again and limped us back to the dock. We weren't taking on water.
Unlike your impact we hit right on the ride plate and intake grate -- took the grate off completely -- and sucked a pile of rocks through the pump. While the boat still ran I had to replace virtually every component from the driveshaft back, and get a few hundred dollars in gelcote repair. It took 6 more weeks for back-ordered parts to arrive and the repair to be completed. Final tally with tax was over $3,500. Yes, it was insured.
How come Relic from The Beachcombers was able to jump his jet boat over a log jam and just keep on going? Bet he never waited for back-ordered parts.
I now have a Hawkeye D11S depth sounder on its way to me. While the boat was in the shop I bought a D10DX in-dash gauge and transom-mounted transducer, but the install was looking like too big a headache so I exchanged it. I'm going to use your instructions for installing the in-hull transducer.
Hope your repair comes off easier and quicker than mine!
Dave
I got this Uniden model - it isn't a good choice for Seadoos. Buy a Humminbird instead.
